As a back up plan, the self-proclaimed prison lawyer, author and
community mentor asked for a lighter sentence, assuring the judge
that he was more than worthy.

Lynn sentenced him to 57 months in prison - one year of that
which could be served concurrently with the 11-year sentence he
started serving in 2007 on unrelated mortgage fraud charges. He
could be behind bars until 2021.

Lynn told Rashad that she hoped that he could use his "spirit"
to get on the right path after prison.

In February, jurors convicted Rashad of conspiring with Hill and
others to commit extortion.

As he began to address the court, Rashad bravely rattled off a
string of legal jargon as he attempted to persuade the judge to
strike down his conviction.

She stopped him.

"You have the right to say whatever you want," she told him.
"Today, before me, nothing is going to happen to convince me to set
aside the jury verdict."

Rashad moved on. "You don't know a lot of the good I've done in
the community," he said. He said he has coached and been a mentor
to young athletes. He also said he's earned praise from prison
officials for being "an altruist" by helping to mediate disputes
among inmates. And he said he was writing a book about "this
situation."

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He said he and co-defendant Rickey Robertson, with whom he
started a sham construction firm RA-MILL in late 2004, were "pawns"
in the massive City Hall investigation. He said they were set up by
developer-turned-FBI informant James R. "Bill" Fisher.

Fisher helped the FBI secretly record Rashad and others as they
demanded money and contracts from him. If he paid, they said, they
could guarantee Hill's support for his affordable housing projects.
Hill and his right-hand man, former City Plan Commissioner D'Angelo
Lee, had been delaying Fisher's zoning change requests, waiting to
see if he would pay ever-increasing amounts of money in a bribery
and extortion scheme.

Last year, a jury convicted Hill and four others in what has
become the largest public corruption investigation ever undertaken
in Dallas. Rashad got a separate trial from Hill because Rashad's
brother was the former council member's lawyer, and the judge
wanted to avoid a conflict of interest.

"I'm not an extortionist," Rashad told the judge Tuesday. "I'll
never accept that."

Rashad turned to the gallery, and gestured to his four
supporters in the audience. "I could have had 100 people here
today," he said, but did not want to "put them through that."

Prosecutor Chad Meacham told the judge that she cannot deter
someone who believes he ""has done no wrong," but rather can "only
punish."

"I urge you do that," he said.

After imposing the sentence, Lynn told Rashad "you obviously
have spent time in the law library," and urged him to pursue a
trade while in prison. "I wish you good luck."

Before Rashad changed his name for religious reasons, he was
known as Vernon Cooks. He starred in football at Wilmer-Hutchins
High School and played at the University of Texas at El Paso. He
went to training camp with the New York Giants in the 1990s but
didn't make the team.

In fall 2007, Rashad was sentenced to 135 months in prison after
a jury found him guilty of charges related to mortgage fraud.

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Rashad is one of 14 people who were charged in the Dallas City
Hall case. He is the sixth person found guilty by jurors. Seven
others have admitted their guilt. One defendant is awaiting
trial.

Before Rashad was sentenced Tuesday, his stepfather, retired
pastor Fred Wilson, denounced the conviction, telling the judge he
had seen jurors sleeping during Rashad's trial. Wilson accused the
U.S. attorney's office of treating Rashad "like Al Capone" by not
only pursuing the mortgage fraud case, but also by charging him in
the City Hall corruption case.

"Prosecutors were on a vendetta," he said. "If he's such a big
criminal, why is he broke?"

Lynn defended the handling of the case. "Our jury was very
conscientious," she said. She added that there was no evidence of
prosecutorial wrongdoing.

"If I saw there was a basis for that, I would be the first to
say so."

WHAT'S NEXT: DEFENDANTS WHO AREN'T IN JAIL YET Prison time:
Former state Rep. Terri Hodge reports to prison by June 22 to serve
a year for lying on a tax return by not reporting bribes she
received as income in 2002.

One more trial: On July 12, Denton County businessman Ron
Slovacek goes to trial. He stands accused of helping former Mayor
Pro Tem Don Hill and former Dallas City Plan Commissioner D'Angelo
Lee in the shakedown scheme.

To be sentenced: Brian and Cheryl Potashnik, who pleaded guilty
to paying bribes to Hill, Lee and Hodge in exchange for their votes
and support of lucrative tax credits for their affordable housing
complexes in southern Dallas, will be sentenced after Slovacek's
trial. Brian Potashnik faces up to 3 1/2 years in prison. Cheryl
Potashnik faces up to 16 months.

Andrea Spencer, a real estate developer who pleaded guilty in
April 2008 to using her minority business certificate to get
construction contracts with Potashnik and paying kickbacks to Hill
and Lee, will also be sentenced after Slovacek's trial. She faces
up to five years in prison.